A beginner’s guide to aromatherapy and basic scents
A beginner’s guide to aromatherapy and basic scents
Anyone who has ever lit a candle knows the power that scent can have on your mood, and while aromatherapy isn’t an exact science, there’s more to essential oils than simply nice scents. They can dramatically change your mood; improve clarity and we use them extensively here at Museo to promote serious relaxation during our signature day spa treatments. So, we are going to share with you today a beginner’s guide to aromatherapy and basic scents to help you get the most out of essential oils and how you can use them to your advantage.
Ready? Let’s go.
What are essential oils
Essential oils are highly concentrated plant extracts that are distilled from the plant matter through different extraction methods, like steam distillation. Popular oils include Eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, and tea tree oil, but believe it or not, there are actually thousands of known essential oils with about 300 available in a commercial way, and all promote a range of health and lifestyle benefits.
Where does aromatherapy come into it?
Aromatherapy has been used for thousands of years to encourage relaxation, healing, a sense of wellness and as part of a beauty routine. When essential oils are inhaled, the molecules rise to the top of the nose and sent through to the olfactory bulb, which acts as an amplifier, through the olfactory nerve into the limbic system of the brain.
It’s about creating a strong experience that triggers a reaction in our limbic system from the scent of the oil that connects to both emotions and long-term memory. How you feel about a scent is deeply personal and can often be brought about because of association.
What Makes Essential Oils Effective?
Some essential oils are soothing, toning, and grounding, while others are energizing, warming, and renewing—but all essential oils are natural. The variety of essential oils allows you to naturally and effectively maintain health and address your specific health concerns.
Different scents can promote different responses in the body and mind -
For easing stress and anxiety: Lavender, cedarwood, lemon, bergamot, orange, and sage and chamomile.
For skin care: Lavender, carrot seed, rose, rosehip, frankincense, geranium, tea tree, ylang-ylang, and patchouli.
For cleaning: Eucalyptus, pine, and lemon.
For a pick-me-up: Lemon, orange, grapefruit, rosemary and peppermint.
For muscle tension and inflammation: peppermint, eucalyptus, chamomile, Myrrh and rosemary
For immune-boosting: Lemon, lavender, tea tree, eucalyptus, oregano, thyme, orange, and cinnamon.
These are just general recommendations though. Often our clients come into Museo with a memory of a particular smell, like their mum always using lavender oil at home, that they find particularly relaxing.
How are essential oils used?
Essential oils can be used from your diffuser to your cleaning products and depending on which oils you choose they may be more suited for some applications over others. I love a bit of lemon essential oil + white vinegar for a simple surface cleaning spray, but that’s definitely not a scent I want to be incorporated in my beauty treatments, for instance. Adding eucalyptus to a steam inhalation if you’ve got a cold or flu is a great way to clear the sinuses and flush out your nasal passage, but hardly relaxing or calming. It’s all in choosing the right scent for the right moment in my mind!
I ensure when flying that I take On Guard with me, which is a mix of Wild Orange Peel, Clove Bud, Cinnamon Leaf, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Leaf, and Rosemary Leaf/Flower essential oils. I make the family inhale through a tissue as we hop onto the plane to protect against environmental pathogens and seasonal cold and flu threats in the cabin and a little dab under the nose throughout the flight works well too.
At Museo, we use essential oils to create your own distinct blended scent that guides you through your treatments with us. By associating a gorgeous blend of oils with a relaxing treatment like our Aromatherapy Massage, you create a connection between that scent and relaxing, gorgeous treatments – which allows you to then replicate that relaxed feeling at home when you smell that same scent. Our Mindfulness Facial starts with a scent journey, suiting your mood for the day and follows with guided meditation paired with the senses for a deeply relaxing experience. Your Museo Wellness Warrior will sit with you and guide you through a range of scents to find the ones that encourage a relaxing and restorative feeling in you and use those throughout your treatment. Whether it’s in an aromatherapy massage, candle meditation, or mindfulness facial, we will use these powerful scents to create a truly sensory experience for you.
If you could use an escape and a moment to yourself, now is the time to try an Aromatherapy Massage or Mindfulness Facial with the Museo team. We are ready to whisk you away from your day-to-day and take you on a sensory journey that is all about you and reducing stress and exhaustion. Book your appointment with us online and come ready to be transported into a space of deep relaxation. We can’t wait to welcome you inside Museo.
Treat yourself to something special this Christmas
We know what Christmas is a time for giving, and don’t get us wrong we are on board with spoiling your favourite people with their favourite things or activities. But when we talk about giving, there’s often someone left out of the equation- and that’s you.
As human beings, we find it more rewarding to do something nice for others, to treat them, to go out of our way to show them how appreciated and valued and special we think the most important people in our lives are. This is particularly true for women, who often spend weeks agonizing over the perfect gift at Christmas for kids, parents, family, your significant other and friends; and all of this is done without thinking much about what you need at this time of year.
The end of the year is a chance to reset, reflect and revive. Whether it’s been a big year personally or professionally, come December we are all ready for a break. And we need to acknowledge that feeling within ourselves and work out ways to serve our feelings to ensure that we get the downtime we need to head into January feeling a million dollars. The last thing you need at this time of year - and we know this because we have been there - is to give give give give all December and January long and start back at work or start the new year with absolutely nothing left in the tank.
This season at Museo we want you to treat yourself. We have great seasonal offers that are designed to recharge you, mind and body, to set you on the right path for the new year. We are also offering a great host of standard, full-body treatments designed to help you feel relaxed and rejuvenated, like our full body massage in our relaxation chamber. Any treatment at Museo is a great way to begin or end your holiday, allowing you a moment of peace and silence, just for you.
Whether you choose one of our Christmas packages as something for your kids to put under the tree or you want to send the link to our website to your husband or best friend, consider what you need this festive season. A gift to yourself isn’t selfish; it’s an investment in the way you want to treat yourself and how you want to face the world for the next 12 months.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY WELLNESS AT MUSEO?
Wellness is one of those terms that is thrown around a lot on Instagram and YouTube a lot, but there is plenty we can all take away from this latest trend. The term wellness is causing us all to take a look at our lives, all of our lives, and work out what it is that is serving us, adding value and what we can do to do right by ourselves.
At Museo, we wholeheartedly believe that in order to make any change, there needs to be activities conducted at multiple levels of the body. If you’re trying to make serious change in your skin, then it’s important to think about not only what is happening on the surface of the skin, but also what food you’re eating, what your stress levels are like, how hydrated you are and what behaviours you need to change or modify. All of these different factors are going to contribute to the long term goal of having better skin.
The same is true if you’re wanting to improve your hair or grow it longer. What foods are you eating that will help you to build strong hair, what treatments are you doing on your hair to encourage better growth or better quality hair, what are your stress levels like and can you stop heat-treating your hair as regularly to help your hair recover.
At Museo, we want to encourage true wellness in our clients to ensure you reach your long and short term goals. We encourage many of our clients to add some form of supplement to their diet, alongside beautiful nourishing food, or replace caffeine with a cup of the beautiful Miss Vitality Clean Tea. We want to encourage you to create habit change, whether that’s taking a day off social media to de-compress after the work week or put in place better skincare routines that will help treat your skin from the epidermis level. Any of our skin specialists or hair stylists can recommend all sorts of ways for you to look after yourself and take a wholistic look at your health to help you craft the kinds of results that you want to see in your skin, body or hair.
That’s truly the difference you get when you come to Museo. We want to get to know and look after your whole self, not just the surface level. That’s why we are able to achieve amazing hair and skin results for our clients, and it’s why you will hear us talking more and more about wholistic treatments and ways to treat yourself well. Because we all want to be well, from the inside out and the outside in, and Museo wants to be part of that journey with you.
Check out our Spring Nourished Life offer for a complete wellness ritual including relaxing Tibetan Singing Bowl Treatment, luxurious foot soak, complete body massage, mini facial workout and seasonal nourishing bowl to fuel your body. Check out the offer here > https://museo.com.au/offers/nourished-life/
Nourish yourself from the inside out
We all know that beauty starts from the inside out, but most of us have resigned to the fact that our diets simply aren’t as clean or nutritious as they should be. Whether it’s a lack of one particular vitamin or mineral, a bit too much wine over the weekend or just a flat-out busy week with the kids and sport and school and simply making the wrong food choices on the fly; there is always more that we can be doing to nourish ourselves, treat ourselves right and build that truly healthy glow from the inside out.
Nourishing eating is one of the most talked-about concepts in the beauty industry. Making sure that the things you’re putting in your body are designed to truly make you feel well and support your skin goals. We spoke about how during winter we tend to eat more rich and nourishing foods, but that can extend into spring and summer with the right combination of foods. Think avocado for good fats, quinoa for magnesium and iron, pomegranate for a rich dose of Vitamin C and Miso for natural probiotics and a healthy gut. By choosing a great combination of foods to fuel you, you will not only feel better but increase the nutrients you’re consuming that your body needs to aid in renewal of your skin, digestion and better hair growth.
To accompany good, nourishing food, we recommend many of our clients look into adding some form of supplement to their diet. We have been working with the naturopaths at Miss Vitality for months in training and learning about their fantastic range - and of course, trying it out on ourselves - and we are astounded with the results. A cup of the Miss Vitality Clean Tea contains fantastic superfoods, detoxifying plants and a range of holistic wellness modalities to nourish your body, providing it with the support it needs to naturally give you that youthful glow and make you feel your best. This new range of organic, plant-based supplements, specifically designed to help you have better skin and feel better within yourself, is a game-changer for our skin transformation clients and we are loving seeing the results.
This spring at Museo we are encouraging you to live a Nourished Life with our Spring Offer.
Begin your experience in the Museo Day Spa with a luxurious foot soak in our relaxation lounge accompanied by cup of our favorite Miss Vitality Clean Tea to nourish you from the inside out. Transition into your spa suite to commence your complete body massage from head to toe with warmed oil, accompanied by incredible sound therapy from Tibetan Singing Bowls to ease stress and help with healing. Finish with a mini skin facial workout, designed to reveal silky smooth skin through the use of our Pevonia Vitaminic Concentrate designed to combat dryness and dehydration with antioxidant action. Complete your experience with our seasonal nourishing food bowl to fuel you as you go about your day. Book in for this nourishing seasonal experience here.
We encourage you to think more carefully about what it is that you're putting into your body and what you can do to live a more nourishing life this spring. Speak to your skin specialty in clinic about the range of Miss Vitality products and how some of these supplements may help you to truly nourish yourself and transform your skin in the process. We can’t wait to see your beautiful new season glow!
CELEBRATING FATHER'S
Father’s Day is a wonderful time to celebrate the amazing things that our Dad’s do in our families and households. It’s often Dad who is getting the kids out the door to stand on the sidelines of a freezing cold soccer pitch every Saturday, or maybe it’s Dad cooking on a Saturday night so mum can have a bath and a minute to herself.
For those of us in households with working mums and working dads it often resembles ‘crazy land’ with diaries full to the brim each day alternating school drop-offs, pick-ups and the never-ending take-to-afterschool-activities. As women, we can be a little better at sharing, or shall I say ‘shouting loudly’, that we need time out before we go stir crazy but ….. men can be incredibly selfless at times, and it is a wonderful thing to be able to celebrate them in all their forms on Father’s Day.
It’s not that Dads are neglected, it’s that their gifts often aren’t quite so focussed on them and how they feel. It’s not breakfast in bed or time out from the day-to-day. It’s socks and jocks, a good bottle of wine or a steak dinner (maybe). All these things are great, but this year, let’s celebrate Dad differently. In a way that will make him feel relaxed and rejuvenated and truly spoilt.
Men need just as much care as women do when it comes to their physical and mental health. They need time out for themselves, and time to just relax and unwind. They need pampering and rejuvenation and all these things that we see marketed to women, but often aren’t promoted to men. That doesn’t mean men need these things any less, that’s why spa and salon treatments, like a massage, are such a wonderful treat and a great way to say thank you for all they do – because it’s something lovely that they wouldn’t naturally buy for themselves, making it a wonderful surprise.
This Father’s Day, celebrate all the big and small things Dad does for your family throughout the year with our King for a Day Father’s Day Package. With the best of Skin, Spa and Salon to make him feel a million bucks, we are sure that he will come out of his time at Museo as relaxed as royalty.
Shop the King for a Day Father’s Day Package here.
WHY YOU NEED TO TAKE TIME OUT
At Museo, we really believe in looking after your whole self, not just the outside, to create the best results. A lot of our clients come to our day spa or salon because it gives them a moment to themselves – a sanctuary away from life, family and busyness.
We believe that taking time out is one of the best things you can do for yourself to truly recharge and rejuvenate. Sometimes that is going for a walk in nature, relaxing and feeling a bit of connection again to the earth. Sometimes it’s just about leaving your phone at home for an hour while you go and drink a coffee. However, you get there, it’s important for us all to just take a bit of time out to remember who we are and where we fit, as individuals. You may belong in a family and lead an incredibly busy life but when do you listen to you and how well are you really looking after yourself.
Taking time out is one of the biggest benefits of visiting Museo. You can indulge in our relaxation lounge, away from your phone and the drama of social media. Enjoy a cup of cleansing tea or a clean eating seasonal plate to nourish you from the inside out and give you that private moment to just recharge your batteries. Time out can be a disconnection from everything else that is going on around you, all the noise and all the things – time out is just a moment for yourself, a chance to take a break and bring yourself back to you.
This Mother’s Day, spoil the women in your life with some time out for themselves. Whether you want to indulge yourself or spoil your mum, sister, best friend, daughter – Museo can help you create a moment just for them. Our Mother’s Day Take Time Out package has been designed to restore you and give you a moment where you can carve out your own piece of space in a world that can often feel overwhelming. This package offers the best of our Salon and Spa so that you leave our space feeling recharged inside and out.
Begin with an aromatic foot soak and begin your peaceful escape with your choice of signature aroma blend selection from Salt of The Earth, including indulgent flavours like Almond Biscotti, Pumpkin Spice or Rosemary & Mint.
Then take a moment out for yourself to relax in one of our luxurious spa suites, including your choice of either our 1-hour Museo Signature Massage or our Drift Away Massage which includes combined relaxation therapies of reflexology, Indian scalp massage and Swedish acupressure; OR Choose our 1-Hour Museo Custom Facial, where you are spoilt with the best of facial products from the powerful O Cosmedics range. Perfect for those wanting to address skin concerns and dedicate a moment to themselves.
Finally, finish your experience with a Salt of the Earth deep scrub and mask foot treatment. Complete your time out with a style blow-dry so you can leave Museo feeling relaxed and absolutely looking your best. You can shop the Take Time Out package online by clicking here.
If you or one of your favourite women crave a moment just for them, a moment where there are no expectations, no needs for someone other than themselves. Our ‘Take time out’ package is an incredible experience gift and something many women would not treat themselves to, making it the perfect gift this Mother’s Day. Shop the Take Time Out Package online here.